The Return of the Volunteer (Die Rückkehr des Freiwilligen)

The Return of the Volunteer is Oppenheim's most overtly political painting in the cycle. It affirms the patriotism of German Jews and addresses the question of their assimilation. The work portrays a soldier who has returned home from the War of Liberation against Napoleon. In his haste to be reunited with his family, he has traveled on the Sabbath, contrary to Jewish law. His father is ambivalent seeing his son's decoration, the prestigious Iron Cross; he feels both pride at the military honor it represents and discomfort with its Christian symbolism.

Hundreds of German Jewish volunteers fought against Napoleon's forces. Ironically, after the French were defeated, Jews lost many of the civil rights they had gained under the French occupation.

This grisaille is based on an earlier work dated 1833-34 also in The Jewish Museum's collection.